Maryland’s three-month-long legislative session kicks off on Wednesday, and it will bring unprecedented challenges for lawmakers seeking to combat the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, increase school funding, and decide how to make up for the state’s projected revenue shortfall.

Last year’s legislative session ended 19 days early due to the pandemic, leaving dozens of bills on the cutting room floor. This year the Senate has capped the number of bills a senator is allowed to introduce at 25, and the House of Delegates is encouraging its members to be thoughtful about what bills they choose to put forward. Lawmakers are expected to meet in-person and virtually with COVID-19 restrictions and protocols in place.

WAMU/DCist put together a list of issues and legislation to watch during the 2021 legislative session that could affect Maryland residents.

Legislature’s Security and COVID-19 Protocols

Maryland State Police say they have increased security measures throughout the Annapolis statehouse complex in light of the attack on the U.S. Capitol last week. Public access to the state buildings is already prohibited due to COVID-19.

Senate President Bill Ferguson and House Speaker Adrienne Jones released their plans in November to hold a hybrid — in-person and virtual — legislative session.

“There inevitably will be something that comes up this year that we had not thought of,” Ferguson told WAMU/DCist. “So instead, we’ve really tried to put the systems in place that will allow us to be nimble with input to make sure that we are responding appropriately.”

The plans detail how the legislature will operate, conduct voting sessions, and allow public attendance. Jones and Ferguson have both said there will be limited floor meetings during the first third of the session. House delegates will be divided into two groups: One group will convene in the House chamber, and the other will convene in the House office building and tune into the session virtually. The Senate will also offer virtual floor session debate and voting, with some senators in the chamber and others tuning in from Senate committee rooms.

The public will be able to livestream video of all floor sessions, committee hearings, and voting via the General Assembly’s website.

Tackling The Effects Of The Pandemic

Dealing with the effects of the coronavirus pandemic will be the top priority during the 2021 session. Lawmakers will be introducing legislation to combat health, economic, and social disparities that were amplified because of the pandemic.

The House’s health committee will be tackling legislation to preserve access to telehealth. At the beginning of the pandemic, about 40% of Marylanders delayed getting medical care because of the coronavirus and more than 30% needed medical care for some reason unrelated to COVID but did not get it, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey.

During the pandemic, Gov. Larry Hogan announced the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency Protection Act, which ordered the state’s department of health to reimburse Medicaid telehealth services for COVID-19 patients. The bill would help make expanded access to telehealth coverage permanent.

Another bill would mandate health care professionals receive implicit bias training and require the Office of Minority Health and Health Disparities to publish an annual report card on health care disparities. The report card would include analysis of racial and ethnic variations in insurance coverage for low-income, non-elderly individuals; comparisons of the racial and ethnic composition of the state’s physicians to the state’s population; and data on disparities in morbidity and mortality rates for heart disease, cancer, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, infant mortality, asthma, and other diseases identified by the Maryland Healthcare Commission. The bill comes with a $1.7 million price tag starting in 2023.

A third bill would make the inspector general for health independent from the state’s health department. In April 2020, Hogan secured 500,000 COVID-19 test kits from South Korea, but later in the year came under fire when The Washington Post uncovered that the kits were incomplete and ultimately never used. The state’s health department representatives and procurement officers were unable to answer questions posed by lawmakers during investigative hearings. The legislation would require that the inspector general have access to the department’s information technology, budget and finances, and procurement and support services.

Other pieces of legislation pertaining to issues that came up during the pandemic, including evictions and mail-in voting, are also expected to be debated.

A bill being introduced in both chambers would offer those in public housing and homeowners making less than 50% of the state’s median income a state-funded attorney in eviction proceedings. Under current law, tenants and homeowners have to seek their own counsel while fighting an eviction in court.

Another eviction bill would prohibit landlords from collecting certain late fees on tenants who are unable to pay rent during a state of emergency. A tenant will be required to submit notice of their inability to pay rent each month. A landlord will also be allowed to ask for documentation of the tenant’s inability to pay, such as bank statements or a notice from the tenant’s employer. Both these bills are the result of evictions being exacerbated by the pandemic.

Other legislation would require local election boards to send mail-in ballots to all registered voters. During the summer, Hogan came under fire from Democratic lawmakers for requiring election boards to send out mail-in ballot applications for the November election, rather than sending ballots to all voters. Lawmakers said that action amounted to “voter suppression.” (During the June 2020 primary, every voter got a mail ballot without needing to request it.) The majority of the state’s eligible voters cast their ballots via mail in November.

Revenue Shortfalls Challenge Budget Negotiations

In mid-December, Maryland’s Board of Revenue Estimates projected that the state would bring in about $18.8 billion in the current fiscal year. That’s about $64 million more than the board predicted three months earlier — but still less than what the state was expected to take in before the pandemic hit.

In the midst of this shortfall, state officials are looking for ways to ease the financial pain many Marylanders are facing. Comptroller Peter Franchot proposed a $1.5 billion injection of economic stimulus into the state’s economy. Franchot’s plan would provide $2,000 stimulus payments to Marylanders making less than $50,000 a year for a single filer and $100,000 or less as a couple. Franchot and other Democratic leaders are also asking for $250 million in assistance for small businesses. The Democrats’ plan would deplete the state’s rainy day fund (which has more than $920 million in it) and use $528 million from the state’s reserve fund.

On Monday, Hogan proposed a $1 billion relief package to provide stimulus checks to 400,000 low-income Marylanders, as well as tax relief and assistance to small businesses. The proposed plan would use funds from last summer’s $1.45 billion budget cuts, the state’s $1.2 billion reserve fund, and $100 million from the rainy day fund. It would also help Maryland keep its AAA-bond rating. The plan will need to be approved by the legislature.

Franchot and other Democrat leaders say Hogan is passing responsibility to lawmakers and delaying much needed economic aid to residents and businesses. But Hogan says he doesn’t have the authority to write $2,000 stimulus checks and needs legislative approval. Since March, Hogan has approved $700 million in state economic relief.

Increasing School Spending While Students Learn At Home

At the end of last session, Hogan vetoed a $4 billion, 10-year education reform bill and new school funding formula. The legislature will have to override the veto, which they’ll most likely be able to with Democratic control of both chambers.

But the big question that remains is whether the increase in spending will be put on hold because of a lack of funding to pay for it.

Currently, the state does have money to fund the first few years of the education reform from its more than half-a-billion-dollar education trust fund. But lawmakers are concerned about funding in the later years because of the lack of revenue in fiscal years 2021 and 2022.

Prince George’s County Del. Alonzo Washington, who has been on the commission to reform education, says lawmakers are also working on a partner bill that would put funding toward things like remote learning, broadband access, and making sure all K-12 students have access to tutoring. The initial reform bill only covered grades K-3. This is an effort to narrow the ever-growing achievement gap.

The partner bill will also come with a cost which remains unclear because it has yet to be calculated.

Hogan v. Democratically-Controlled Legislature

Based on the previous items on this list, it’s business as usual in that Hogan and the legislature will likely have to find ways to compromise if they want to get things done.

Ferguson and Jones have said they would try to work with the governor to pass economic relief.

To make up for the lack of revenue, lawmakers are already devising measures to fix corporate tax loopholes, implement sports betting, and — possibly — legalize recreational marijuana. But Hogan is likely to veto any legislation that would raise taxes, as he’s done in the past.

This story originally appeared on wamu.org